'Nobody has ever quite pulled it off the way Cain does, not Hemingway, and not even Raymond Chandler' Tom Wolfe 'It is no accident that movies based on three [of Cain's novels] helped to define the genre known as film noir' NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS 'The most starkly elemental thing that has been written for years' EVENING STANDARD The torrid story of Frank Chambers, the amoral drifter, Cora, the sullen and brooding wife, and Nick Papadakis, the amiable but inconvenient husband, has become a classic of its kind, and ...
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'Nobody has ever quite pulled it off the way Cain does, not Hemingway, and not even Raymond Chandler' Tom Wolfe 'It is no accident that movies based on three [of Cain's novels] helped to define the genre known as film noir' NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS 'The most starkly elemental thing that has been written for years' EVENING STANDARD The torrid story of Frank Chambers, the amoral drifter, Cora, the sullen and brooding wife, and Nick Papadakis, the amiable but inconvenient husband, has become a classic of its kind, and established Cain as a major novelist with a spare and vital prose style and a bleak vision of America.
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Seller's Description:
First edition of one of the most important crime novels of the twentieth century, adapted as a motion picture seven times. Octavo, original cloth. Boldly Signed by James M. Cain on the front free endpaper. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing to the crown. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. A very nice example, rare and desirable signed. "It is sometimes easy to trace a literary genre to its source, and James M. Cain's first novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice, is the noir novel that paved the way for all the noir fiction that followed. The famous film starring Lana Turner and John Garfield is notoriously dark, but the novel is even more full of despair and devoid of hope. It is a short book--little more than a novella--but its searing characterization and depiction of tawdry greed and lust is branded into every reader's memory" (Otto Penzler). Listed by Modern Library as one of the 100 greatest novels of the twentieth century.
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Seller's Description:
Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. First edition. Boards are slightly soiled and near fine, with a supplied proof dustwrapper which came directly from the estate of the artist Arthur Hawkins, Jr. The jacket has been folded with a crease at the spine, Knopf's small Borzoi logo has been cut away from the rear panel (possibly for another design by Hawkins), and Hawkins has written the date "1933" on the front flap, although the book wasn't released until 1934. However the jacket is exceptionally bright and otherwise fine, and about 1/4" taller than the finished version, to which we have compared it (although otherwise identical to it). The jacket was unsigned by Hawkins, unlike most of his work, but is credited to him in Heller and Chwast's seminal study of jacket design, *Jackets Required*-the survival of this proof in his estate seems to confirm their research. A milestone of hardboiled literature that was the basis for the classic 1946 film featuring Lana Turner and John Garfield (as well as at least three other versions). *Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone. * This proof jacket is likely unique.
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Seller's Description:
Very good in very good jacket. 187pp. Octavo. Orange boards. Jacket blurb affixed to the front pastedown. Top stain faded. Jacket shows some sunning, especially to spine, and some edgewear. Dust jacket is from another copy. A solid copy of one of the most important crime novels of the 20th century.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in Fine jacket. First Edition, First Printing with the words "FIRST EDITION" printed on the copyright page. A beautiful copy. This ORIGINAL dustjacket has the $2.00 printed price present on the front flap with minor wear to the spine and edges. The book is in nice shape. The binding is tight with NO cocking or leaning and the boards are crisp with minor wear to the edges. The pages are clean with NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A wonderful copy of this TRUE FIRST EDITION with the First Issue dustjacket that has the correct titles on the back panel. We buy James M. Cain First Editions.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in Fine jacket. First Edition, First Printing. This attractive dustjacket has benefitted from professional restoration by a master conservator. The end result is a well preserved dustjacket with no chips, tears or missing pieces. This original dustjacket has the $2.00 price present and all the first issue points. The book is in nice condition with slight wear to the edges. The binding is tight, and the boards are clean. The pages are clean with some discolorization to the endpapers. There is no writing, marks or bookplates in the book. Overall, a clean copy of this true first edition in collector's condition. Trades and offers welcomed.
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Seller's Description:
Near Fine. Dust Jacket Included. First edition, first printing. Original publisher's cloth, blue top stain. Near fine with some light fading, foxing to fore-edge, former owner's bookplate front pastedown, light offsetting to endpapers; in an unclipped dust jacket with some mild and small chips to the extremities, small ink stains to front flap, else very good or better. An attractive example, free of any repairs or restoration.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. First Edition, First Printing. Very Good, lacking dust jacket. Offsetting to end papers. First 8 page leafs have a tiny tear at the side edge. Foxing to side of page block and cloth. Sunning to spine. First edition, as stated.
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Seller's Description:
1st edition. Hardcover. Original yellow boards with black lettering in very good condition, and endpapers and pages very clean indeed. The very scarce dustjacket has had some renovation in places, is a little spotted and rubbed, not price-clipped. An uncommon first UK printing in its jacket of the author's most famous book, a Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone mystery novel.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. 1934 3rd printing February 1934 in original $2 priced jacket with lightly stained spine and edge wear. No marks, original publisher's top stain. Please email for photos.
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Seller's Description:
1st edition. Hardcover. Original yellow boards with black lettering in very good condition, and endpapers and pages very clean indeed. An excellent first printing of the author's famous novel. A Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone mystery novel.
